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Welcome to Debbie!
My husband and I have a small prewar two bedroom on the Upper West Side. When we bought the apartment it had one full bath and a half bath. Since there are three of us, we needed to somehow convert the half bath to include a shower component to accommodate early morning schedules...
The bathroom room is only 5 x 6 and therefore we were quite limited in space. However, we were inspired by a trip to Italy where the shower was integrated into the bathroom with no separation between toilet and shower.
My husband and I designed the bathroom ourselves but got a lot of assistance from a good friend who is an interior designer and who led us to our contractor and helped us pick out the tile and accessories. We chose tiles that had a hand made look with imperfections.
Since the space was so small, we could not accommodate the standard shower stall scenerio and we decided that the shower had to be open on one side to allow freedom of movement. The design involved moving the sink to an adjacent wall, moving the door of the bathroom and installing a glass partition between the toilet and the shower area. We could not move the toilet without great expense. What we didn't know was that the floor of the bathroom was solid concrete.
Our contractor was very nervous to drill into the concrete since the building was 86 years old and it could break up and cause tremdous problems for the apartment below. We had no choice but to build up the floor for the shower area and hence, the step up. The entire bathroom has floor to ceiling tiles (from Chelsea Tiles on 15th Street) the medicine cabinet (Robern) has interior electric and it and all the accessories and sink (Vitria) come from Quintessentials in our neighborhood.
Everything was picked out to accommodate the fact that water could get everywhere. The water actually drains nicely and the area around the toilet stays dry.
If I were to do it again, the only thing I would change would be the subway tiles - they were quite heavy and difficult to install. Otherwise, we love our bathroom.
Debbie
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
Beautiful. Love the tiles.
Not that this is really bad, but is there a craze for glass bowl sinks and immobile glass shower partitions? Another recent entry had the same.
Beautiful! You've done a wonderful job of maximizing the space! Thank you for sharing.
very smart!
I actually really like the step that was installed. It seperates the shower from the toliet quite nicely.
Because of the small space and the step, the sink appears to be almost part of the shower. My boyfriend shaves in the shower and the sink in the shower would be a big plus for him!
This looks like a (very nicely designed but) no nonsense man's bathroom to me.
This is really brilliant and beautifully executed.
brilliant!
and thanks, that's good to know about the subway tiles. i've been on the fence about them and now i know not to use them, 'cause while my tile guy is afordable, he's also honest about not being the best at installation.
lastly, i'm wondering what legal hassles were involved converting your half to a full bath, be it with your co-op board or if a condo, with the city (as in, changing your coo)?
New here, hi!
The layout looks great for your needs and the size of the space you've got to work with. That sink looks perfect in there as well. The step up to the shower is also an unexpected benefit I think it adds some needed definition to the space.
However I am not such a fan of these two tiles together, their styles are too divergent for me, and not in a complimentary way.
Thanks so much for sharing this: I'm going to put a printout of it in my idea file, it is so well done!
Wow. I'm really impressed by how you were able to resolve your tight space issues in such a stylish way. Your bathroom looks great.
A brilliant solution!
Our bath is mid-remodel and we've really had to fight with the contractor to have no lip/bump/threshold into the shower area and no partition...
he keeps warning us that things will get wet -
and we keep saying SO WHAT?!
Love this room...
I love this; the tile is gorgeous and I like the step-up to the shower. Very smart use of such small space. Your sink is beautiful, but it would drive me nuts trying to keep it clean all of the time.
While I understand the need to save space, these photos make me think of a prison movie.
I think this is a great solution to their problem. I like your shower area. The step up and glass divider is a good solution to my problem of a tiny 1950s stall shower. We don't need to have our sink in the shower, but we do have to knock out part of the closet to accommodate an expansion. This gives a very open feeling.
I wanted to do a similar combination of subway tile/glass tile trim. Good to keep in mind on the installation issues.
The tile work looks very slipshod.
Interesting - but one thought I had was whether the shower area should be STEP-DOWN to contain the water?
Was this considered? Do you have any problems with water spilling out into the toilet area?
Lovely job, though.
I was thinking the same thing!! It's beautiful, but how does gravity allow this happen? It seems like the water would flow right out the door.
I love how this bathroom turned out.
For the posters interested in subway tiles - not all subway tiles are that rustic, that heavy, or difficult to install. If you are interested in subway tile, it would pay to really shop around and look at all your options.
You would think the water would spread everywhere but the showers like this where I'm at in Europe are very subtly shaped to direct the water towards the drain. Theirs appears to be like this.
Also, many bathrooms here don't even have separate shower stalls, much less any kind of step up OR down around the shower head.
I think it's awesome because when it's time to clean the bathroom you just remove all the stuff you don't want to get wet, spray cleaner on dirty spots, and hose down the entire room. Yay!
Hi!
thank you for sharing, very nice.
BUT, but, please please tell me what you recommend/do if you were going to do the subway tiles again.
I love subway tiles and now i am nervous, hopefully i can find the right person to install them
thnks and godluck!
Hi All,
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I did not mention this, but the bathroom is now about 7 years old! We were slightly forward thinking at that time with the glass tiles and the glass sink. There were not as many options as there are today - we probably would have done a few things differently. It is hard to see in the pictures, but the tiles are rustic and have a crackle finish. They were not supposed to be perfect at all. But having said that, I still would not use such a heavy tile again- it was a difficult install and our contractor definitely had problems installing it and the glass tiles too. I think there are many more lighter options available now. The only problem with the glass tiles is the grouting, which I would assume would be the case with any of these kind of tiles.
As far as the step up - there was no choice. It was the shower that had to drain and the pipes installed underneath to do so. The floor is pitched and it drains really well. Believe it or not, the whole bathroom does not get wet at all. The sink was picked exactly because we wanted something that could get wet. It is not a problem to keep it clean and looking nice at all. The sink actually does not feel like it is in the shower even though the pictures seem to indicate that. My husband is the one who uses the room and has been really happy.
And lastly, I am on the board of my building's coop and there were no legal hassles -but that may vary from building to building.
Thanks again for the great comments!
Deb
that totally does not meet code.